<p>A couple of things before I actually try and answer your question.</p>
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<p>- Many, if not most, runners suck at swimming. Many of the things that make us good runners make us horrible swimmers.</p>
<p>- Swimming is all about form. You have the world's greatest conditioning but if your form sucks, you'll be slow. You can't muscle your way through the swim.</p>
<p>- The great thing about most triathlons is that the swim portion is relatively short. You need to be a competent swimmer to be competitive, but you don't want to take too much time away from running and biking to get a marginal improvement in the swim. Who cares if you come out of the water 10 min behind the strong swimmers, you can make that up easy on the bike and run.</p>
<p>- If your going to be doing a 70.3 then you'll most likely be wearing a wetsuit. This is like swimming with a buoy. Real swimmers hate wetsuits because they help poor swimmers much more than they do good swimmers. Wetsuits help correct poor form (mostly by lifting the legs). Good swimmers already have good form, that's why they're good, and so they don't gain as much from wetsuits.</p>
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<p>As AdCo mentioned, coaching, swim clinics and masters swim clubs are all great ways to get advice. Nothing beats having someone watch you swim and tell you what you're doing wrong. Other than having someone watch you and record it on video so they can show you what you're doing wrong. If you can get video taken you'll be shocked at what you really look like in the water.</p>
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<p>If you don't want to do any of the above, consider getting a book. Now some people love Total Immersion and some real swimmers will tell you it's garbage. I don't think its a method that will make you a top swimmer, but follow it and you'll be a competent to good swimmer. Here is their book specifically for Triathletes: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325&tag=kickrunners-20&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FTriathlon-Swimming-Made-Easy-Open-Water%2Fdp%2F1931009074" rel="norewrite" target="_blank">http://www.amazon.com/Triathlon-Swimming-Made-Easy-Open-Water/dp/1931009074</a></p>
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<p>When you're doing drills, it's going to feel horrible. You've probably got years of swimming the wrong way and your muscles have great memory. The tendency, especially when you're tired, is to revert to muscle memory. That only reinforces the wrong things you're doing. If you really want to be successful in changing your stroke, you have to slow down and break things down to an elemental level. It's like learning to run barefoot, you have to retrain your body. The reality is most triathletes are not going to to take a few months off conditioning work to rebuild their swim. But during the drills, slow down, focus on what the purpose of the drill is, do it as many times as you can stand. Then go back to your normal stroke and try to focus on what you've been drilling, incorporating what you have learned. When you start to get tired, stop, because you'll fall back to your old habits and lose the benefits of the drills.</p>
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<p>One drill I think is useful for balance and rotation is the 10/10 drill (I've also seen it called the switch drill). Read about it here: <a href="http://swimming.about.com/cs/techniquetips/a/Freestyl_Drills_3.htm" target="_blank">http://swimming.about.com/cs/techniquetips/a/Freestyl_Drills_3.htm</a>. Another thing to do is just focus when you're swimming on pushing your chest down into the water. It's going to feel different and weird. It's supposed to.</p>
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<p>Good luck,</p>
<p>Mike</p>
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<div class="quote-container"><span>Quote:</span>
<div class="quote-block">Originally Posted by <strong>swallen1</strong> <a href="/t/76047/newbie-question-amnesty#post_2025965"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style=""></a><br><br><p>A little swim help, please?</p>
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<p>I'm a long time runner, longer time cyclist, but did my first sprint tri about 16 months ago. I'm thinking about 70.3 this year, but I have a really bad swim.</p>
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<p>Seriously, I'm always in the top 1/3 bike and run, but bottom 1/3 swim. Now, while I'm nursing a stress fracture, it seems like a good time to improve my swim. Specifically, I need to improve my body position. I've used fins and a pull buoy to try to get the feel of how I should be positioned in the water, but my legs still sink when I swim. I can swim a long way - I did a 2000 M straight set a couple of weeks ago, but I'm slow. A knowledgable swimmer watched me and gave me some tips about keeping my head low in the water, etc. But, it just played with my mind. Now, I feel like I can't even swim a lap without taking a wrong breath.</p>
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<p>So, here's what I'd like: what are the best drills / tools for improving body position? I need something I can incorporate, preferably without starting over.</p>
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<p>Thanks for this thread!</p>
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<p>Steve</p>
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I swim about a 2:06 / 100M in the pool and I did my IM swim (placid, which tends to be fast and with a wetsuit in 1:14, so.. ) </p>
